In case you read no other web forums but my web journals (highly unlikely) you will have noticed that within the last year or more there’s been a serious chilling effect on speech critical of the government.

I wish this were my tinfoil talking...I truly wish that it were so...but I am now seeing people fearing to utter words that are even the slightest bit critical of anything our current regime is doing for fear of being “collected” by the “foreign combatant” net or something similar.

In fear of the government boots with their dark sunglasses and black blazers people are guarding their words and losing their freedoms silently in the process. And worse yet without such speech they will never get their freedoms back.

We are in danger of becoming a pitiful aged weakened country full of fearful pitiful people who dare not speak their hearts nor even look beyond the horizon. And it’s been that way for some time now.

What a sad fate for a country founded on the ideals of strength and freedoms such as free words and free ideas. The Eagle is plummeting and will land in a stinking rotting heap on the steps of a nation of people too busy watching Reality TV and consuming mass quantities to even notice its death.

I will make some predictions here...

The war in Iraq will last another 5 years if not 10.

The next election, if it even happens (tinfoil), will be as rigged as the previous ones.

The technical infrastructure of this country will collapse within the next 20 years due to cost cutting and profit skimming.

It will become “unpopular” to read or learn anything beyond what’s taught in school.

It will become “unpopular” to belong to anything but a mainstream religion.

All communications will be monitored within 10 years and encryption without government approval will become illegal.

All inventions and ideas not belonging to a corporation will become the property of the government.

Provided the infection of insanity does not spread beyond our country we will be seen and pitied by the rest of the world if we aren’t already.

The world in some cases is already laughing at us...

I’m not an Ayn Rand’er per-se but it seems we are in need of a John Gault to hide all our brightness away until this flame of idiocy and corruption burns itself out. Unfortunately by that time there will likely be nothing left but ash.

I don’t have a fix for this and that hurts me. I’ve spent most of my life fixing things but I can’t fix this. If I had the ear of every man, woman, and a child on the planet I don’t think I could raise their fire enough to unseat the corrupt beings in power.

I call them beings but in truth they are human. I do not want to sugar coat this situation even on the slightest level. We did this to ourselves - myself included. Only a few in this country can claim no fault for these events. I’ve heard myself speak the words of failure many times...

“I’d vote but I don’t think it will make a difference.”“Who cares? It doesn’t affect us way out here?”“That only affects a few people so I’m not involved.”“What can I do? I’m only one person.”

So many more than those I’ve said and heard that my mind is refusing to remember them all. Like most humans I don’t accept failure well.

This brings the question to me though I do not want it to - what happens now?

I have a 10 year old autistic daughter and a wife of 13 years. I care about them. I care for their safety. Do I choose to fight to give them a future or choose to flee to keep them safe now? Does one choice nullify the other? Can’t I do both? I just don’t know...

I once asked my cousin why she got so involved in helping people even when it put her at risk. Her answer was simple “How can I not?”.